Hubby to the rescue!!!

So I promised the story behind my husband having to rescue the kids and I our first night of owning our new home...

After waiting all day to start working on pulling out carpet and wall paper I had a hard time stopping.  Remember that I spent the early part of the day checking out all the outbuildings on the property?  Well, every lock has a different key, and in my brilliance, I decided to leave the appropriate key in all the locks until I could mark them somehow.  Well, that decision was made in the daylight.  When we signed papers on the house, L mentioned that she had problems with vagrance and vandalism at times in the past.  13 acres with one elderly lady is a good combination for people using your land.  I remembered this all about 8pm... mostly because that is my kids' bedtime and their behavior was starting to show it, so I thought it was about time to call it quits for the day and head home. 

My husband was working a late night at work, so we were on our own.  Now I grew up in this rural area, but I have to be honest, I'm the skiddish sort.  One weekend I came home from college and ended up waking in the middle of the night to the sound of footsteps outside my bedroom window.  I called (read screamed) for my father convinced we had an intruder and too scared to actually get out of bed and go get the poor, sleeping man.  My hero headed outside to investigate... Only to find 3 deer eating the plants on the patio.  I was relieved no one was plotting to murder us in our beds, but a bit embarrassed that a 21 year old still calls for "daddy" over bumps in the night.

Back to last night...  So I decided to put on my big girl pants and go lock all the doors and grab the keys.  The lighting behind the house is moonlight at night... I was on my own.  But armed with my handy iPhone for a flashlight, I knew I could find my way.  Until about 20 steps from the back porch I heard footsteps in the grass area behind the sheds.  Now, I'm a reasonable lady.  I was sure it was just a deer or some animal, but boy did it sound like a really huge, scarey man.  Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt for someone to spend the night in the sheds.... I'd lock them in the morning.  I very respectably walked back to the house and locked the door behind me.

Then I started loading up to take my tired crew home.  I headed to the car with a load.  I had been getting in and out of the car all day and had left it unlocked, but when I got to the car it was very much locked tight.  I checked 2 doors and then I pretty much freaked.  The last time I had gotten into the car was through the back hatch...  There is no lock button there, so there was no way I accidentally locked the car.  I turned and ran back to the house, not at all respectably.  By the time I got through the door I knew I needed to hold it together enough not to scare my tired children.  I calmly grabbed the phone and called my husband.  No answer, so I left a message that I had locked the keys in the car and needed his help.  I didn't want to sound like a crazy woman, after all.  Then I looked everywhere for my car keys.

Here's an important detail about my world...  From the outside looking in, I'm pretty organized.  Everything has a home in my house and if anyone is coming over, it is all in it's home.  But if you know me, you know me, you know I lose my keys or iPhone about every other day.  In fact, I had already lost my iPhone once that day, making me late to pick my son up from school.  So, in order to save myself from needless searching, the most common place to find my car keys in in the ignition...  Hey, this isn't LA!  I know anything can happen, but car theft isn't a huge issue around here...

So, I searched the (basically empty) 1100 sq ft farmhouse for the keys I believed I had probably left in my ignition.  I had been in every building, but lets be real, after the "footsteps" I wasn't going to any of the out buildings.  As I searched I locked both the doors and shut all the drapes.  I was still trying to be brave and not let the kids know I was freaked out!  About 10 minutes creeped by with no word from my husband.  So I texted him that my keys were locked in the car and my cell phone battery was almost dead.  All true and sounded a bit more urgent.  About 5 minutes later I started to panic...  Text #2 went something like, "We need help, and I don't know who else to call.  Please call back!"  Definitely urgent, but I was pretty sure I didn't sound like a complete crazy woman.

He finally called back spouting reasons why it took so long and I completely cut him off with "Somebody locked my car, I heard footsteps and I am scared!"  So much for remaining calm and trying to sound like an adult.  I was the girl calling daddy to rescue her. 

My hero was there within 5 minutes, and he even called on his way over and stayed on the phone until he was walking into the house to help me feel safe.  Unfortunately, the keys were not in the car... But his spare key did get us in the car and eventually home.  He came in the house, helped to load us all up and then went around to all the out buildings to lock up and retrieve keys.  He then headed back to work... Apparently my hero was in high demand tonight and needed to put out some fires there too.

When he finally got home, he sweetly said, "I don't want to invalidate your feelings, and I would have been scared too, but I am thinking the footsteps might have been an animal and that the kids might have found your keys and managed to lock the car with the remote button.  I just don't want you to be scared in our new home, and I am pretty sure there is a reasonable explaination.  And I really don't want the kids to be afraid, so maybe we could not talk about this in front of them."  Ugh... If he wouldn't have been so nice I could have at least been mad at him instead of feeling like a baby!

This morning I went back to the house to start working.  I picked up the blanket the kids had used for their dinner picnic, and there they were...  Right where the kids could have been playing with them...